Since 1956, the Social Security program has provided cash benefits to people with disabilities. This annual report provides program and demographic information about the people who receive those benefits. The basic topics covered are

Kevin Kulzer managed the preparation of the data in this report. Hazel Jenkins, Art Kahn, Kia Masseaux, and Clark Pickett wrote the programs to process the data and produce the statistical tables. Glenda Carter and Linda Martin wrote data specifications. Glenda Carter, Hazel Jenkins, and Kia Masseaux validated the data. Staff of the Division of Information Resources edited the report and prepared the print and electronic versions for publication.

Your suggestions and comments on this report are welcome and should be directed to Kevin Kulzer at 410-965-5366 or di.asr@ssa.gov. For specific questions about the data, please call or e-mail the contact listed on each table.

Manuel de la Puente Associate Commissioner for Research, Evaluation, and Statistics September 2008

The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) program provides benefits to retired workers and their dependent family members and to survivors of deceased workers. The Disability Insurance (DI) program provides benefits to disabled workers, their spouses, and children (whether or not disabled).

Benefits are paid from the OASI and DI trust funds. However, not all disabled beneficiaries are paid from the DI trust fund. All disabled widow(er)s' and most disabled adult children's benefits are paid from the OASI trust fund. Persons receiving disability benefits from either trust fund are referred to in this report as Social Security beneficiaries.

Data for 2001 and subsequent years presented in these tables may differ slightly from other published statistics for two reasons. First, all data for those years are based on 100 percent data files. Second, beginning in 2001, the definition of an award was changed to include secondary benefit awards, subsequent periods of disability, and conversions from one class of child's benefit to another and to exclude reinstated benefits. Those changes resulted in a slight increase in the award counts.

The tables on noninstitutionalized beneficiaries based on the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) have been removed from the Annual Statistical Report on the Social Security Disability Insurance Program. Because of increased attrition of survey participants over time and increasingly low match rates to administrative data, attempts were made to improve the reliability of estimates based on the SIPP. The Office of Research, Evaluation, and Statistics (ORES) contracted with the Census Bureau to conduct a special SIPP-based interview of Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income beneficiaries. Estimates based on the additional data were not available when this report was published. However, ORES anticipates publishing these estimates in another publication as well as highlighting the changes in the data and the reliability of the estimates. This decision reinforces the inherent differences between the survey data used to produce the estimates of noninstitutionalized beneficiaries and the administrative data used in this publication.

All years are calendar years unless otherwise specified.

Background

History of the Social Security Disability Insurance Program

Definition of Disability

Types of Benefits Available

Initial Disability Decisionmaking Process

Appeals Process

Benefit Calculations

Benefits Offset and Withheld

Work Incentives

Benefit Termination

Charts and Tables

Beneficiaries in Current-Payment Status(Charts 1–6)

Disabled Beneficiaries and Nondisabled Dependents(Tables 1–2)

All Disabled Beneficiaries(Tables 3–18)

Disabled Workers(Tables 19–27)

Disabled-Worker Families(Tables 28–30)

Beneficiaries Who Have Filed for Workers' Compensation or Public Disability Benefits(Chart 7 and Tables 31–34)

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